Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Iraqi Nervous Breakdown

by digby

Al Kamen:

Hours before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees. This cable, marked “sensitive” and obtained by The Washington Post, outlines in spare prose the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees’ constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government.

Here’s the cable(pdf)

In a very straighforward descriptive style, Khalilzad writes that Iraqis must hide the fact that they work for the US or face ostracism or worse. Women are being treated only slightly better than if they were living under the Taliban in 1999 — and they are being asked to wear clothing that Khalilzad admits was not even required by the most repressive Iranian Ayatollahs. They are losing their driving privileges and are considered suspicious if they use a cell phone — they might be calling a lover, you see. (This is your fundamentalist religion working to “free” women from the burden of being full citizens.)

People are being gouged for electricity, to which they barely have access anyway (in 115 degree heat!) They face kidnappings and violence every day of their lives. Sectarian divisions are showing up in all their social interactions, even among families. They must adopt separate customs, dress and manner of speaking to travel freely through various neighborhoods in Baghdad or risk violence. They cannot trust the security forces, who seem to be getting more hostile to the population, especially those who work for the US. Their anxiety is palpable as they feel their lives are hurling out of control.

Did I mention that the people he is talking about in this cable are all employees of the US embassy in Baghdad? That’s right. These are the highly privileged, educated elite who work inside the Green Zone. Imagine what it’s like out in the hinterlands.

He does touch upon this with one very disturbing observation:

One colleague beseeched us to weigh in to help a woman who was uprooted in may from her home after 30 years on the pretext of some application of a long-disused lawy that allows owners to evict tenents after 14 years. The woman, who is gayli Kurd, says she has nowhere to go, no other home, but the courts give them no recourse to this new assertion of power. Such uprooting may be a response by new Shiite government authorities to similar actions against Arabs by Kurds in other parts of Iraq. (Note: an arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militias are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq. One editor told us that the KDP is planning to set up tent cities in Irbil, to house Kurds being evicted from Bagdad.)

The country has obviously already spiraled into a state of civil war. It’s not surprising that it’s taken on this character of secret informants, ethnic cleansing, paranoia and neighborhood militias because the whole society was shaped by an authoritarian police state. But civil war it is, and from the sound of this cable, it’s happening on a far more fundamental level than we knew. The whole society is breaking down from inside out.

Although out staff maintain a professional demeanor, strains are apparent. We see that their personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian or ethnic channels, despite talk of reconciliation by officials. Employees are apprehensive enough that we fear they may exagerrate developments or steer us toward news that comports with their own worldview. Objectivity, civility and logic that make for a functional workplace may falter if social pressures outside the Green Zone don’t abate.

He pretty much says that he doesn’t know if he can trust his own employees much longer because they are being driven a little bit crazy by fear and paranoia. Heckuva job, there, Uncle Sammy.

This seems like a pretty interesting document. I have to wonder why it was merely linked by pdf in a throwaway paragraph in Al Kamen’s Sunday column. Khalilzad is, after all, the ambassador to Iraq. You’d think that his thoughts on the deterioration of the social fabric of Iraq would be of interest. Apparently not so much.

.

Gore’s Moral Imperative

by tristero

I finally saw An Inconvenient Truth and I simply can’t stress enough how important it is for as many people as possible to see it. Not only because it is a superb, sobering description of an imminent environmental catastrophe. Something even more important is on display.

An Inconvenient Truth depicts a genuine American politics of engagement and character. Or more precisely, the untapped potential for it. In the film, Gore says several times that tackling head-on the serious problems that global warming causes is an urgent moral duty. He’s right, of course. But the film makes abundantly clear Gore himself has a moral imperative. And that is to return to electoral politics as soon as possible. Man oh man, does this country need more like him.

Should Gore run for president again? Hell, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. Gladly, juat as I did in 2000. [Update: As per suggestion in comments, here’s a link to a draft Gore site.] But Somerby has a good point. The mainstream press loathes Gore and that makes it exceedingly difficult to determine how much of a chance he has. That said, a Gore campaign conducted at the political and intellectual level of the film would be so inspiring it could just motivate considerable interest and commitment by young people which could help counter that kind of assault.

In contrast, the latest bundle of snoozers packaged into an “agenda” by the Democratic party’s utterly inept national political consultants is a major league embarassment. It’s almost as if the party consultants concluded that since the world is facing an energy crisis, the Democratic party should set an example and not have any.

The modern Al Gore, however, points the way towards a seriously exciting Democratic politics, one that can see a deeply important problem clearly, find ways to tackle it, and inspire the political will to do so. We need that kind, and how.

If the presidency is closed to him, there is the Senate again or a governorship. Why not? But relegating a person like Gore to permanent outsider status in national electoral politics is a waste of a precious natural resource that this country simply can’t afford, even in the best of times. And these are not the best of times.

Insurgent Sympathisers

by digby

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the charming song “Hadji Girl” by now. Here’s a little clip of the video from German TV if you haven’t had a chance to see how some US Marine officers uphold American values in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Meanwhile, the NY Times today reports that special operations troops used abusive techniques, but in at least a couple of cases, they were against “insurgent sympathizers.” This is a new phrase but I suspect it is going to be a very useful one. See, Hadji Girl’s little sister (the one who gets her brains blown out in the song) could easily be an “insurgent symnpathizer.” Indeed, anyone who is related to an insurgent or even knows one — little kids especially — can be seen as soft on insurgency when they cling to their mothers and fathers begging for their lives. The rules of engagement being what they are, apparently, killing these insurgent sympathizers is a-ok.

Throughout this latest report on abuses, they make the case that the blame lies up the chain of command who failed to make the rules clear. There is no indication that anyone up the chain of command will be held liable, however. And everyone else involved were just operating under a misunderstanding. No harm no foul. Water under the bridge. Move along, people.

General Formica said in the interview on Friday that he believed that the Special Operations troops thought they were following authorized procedures, and corrected them after he pointed out their error. “I didn’t find cruel and malicious criminals that are out there looking for detainees to abuse,” he said.

I was out in the sands of Iraq
And we were under attack
And I, well, I didn’t know where to go.
And the first thing I could see was
Everybody’s favorite Burger King
So I threw open the door and I hit the floor.
Then suddenly to my surprise
I looked up and I saw her eyes
And I knew it was love at first sight.
And she said

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
Hadji girl I can’t understand what you’re saying.
And she said
Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
Hadji girl I love you anyway.

Then she said that she wanted me to see.
She wanted me to meet her family
But I, well, I couldn’t figure out how to say no.
Cause I don’t speak Arabic.
So, she took me down an old dirt trail.
And she pulled up to a side shanty
And she threw open the door and I hit the floor.
Cause her brother and her father shouted

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They pulled out their AKs so I could see
And they said
Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah

So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me.
As the bullets began to fly
The blood sprayed from between her eyes
And then I laughed maniacally
Then I hid behind the TV
And I locked and loaded my M-16
And I blew those little f***ers to eternity.
And I said

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They should have known they were f***ing with a Marine

What sets this apart from most war songs, which are obviously often violent and celebrate the death of the enemy, is the fact that he holds a little girl in front of him as a shield and then laughs maniacally when blood sprays from between her eyes. Michelle Malkin thinks this is business as usual and maybe she’s right. In the video the guys listening hooted and hollard at those lines in particular, so the idea of a young girl getting shot in the head is obviously not considered any kind of taboo. They enjoyed this particular image very much.

I worry about people who think like this coming back into society. That kind of thing cannot be considered gallantry on the battle field. It’s ugly and dirty and ultimately is going to blow back on some of these guys. I hope the Republicans are prepared to spend as much on VA mental health as they’ve spent filling their right wing cronies’ bank accounts because a lot of these guys are going to need help. Our troops are in danger of losing their humanity in a war being fought for bogus political reasons. Some of them are going to have a hard time living with that.

Update: The New York Times also has a big story today on Haditha, having interviewed some of the soldiers and their lawyers. They claim thier actions were SOP, which means we will probably have another round of this “the rules weren’t clear” so nobody’s responsible.

.

Original Inquisitor

by digby

Kieran Healy makes what I think is the most salient observation about the Supremes gutting of the fourth amendment in Hudson v. Michigan and I would really love to see some smart legal scholars ask Justice Scalia about it at his next controversial speech:

Scalia, writing for the majority, is happy to set his originalism aside and argue that the growth of “public-interest law firms and lawyers who specialize in civil-rights grievances … [and] the increasing professionalism of police forces, including a new emphasis on internal police discipline … [and] the increasing use of various forms of citizen review can enhance police accountability” all mean that the fourth amendment can be reinterpreted.

There have been many cases that put the lie to Scalia’s “originalism,” but in this one he isn’t even trying. He is claiming outright that the fourth amendment is no longer necessary because cops have adopted certain bureaucratic systems and are trained well so we don’t have to worry about government intrusion anymore. I suppose it’s possible that the founders would agree with him, I don’ know, but if they meant for the fourth amendment to be removed from the BOR once cops were trained to always do the right thing, then they made a big mistake and forgot to write it into the constitution. And I certainly haven’t seen the legislature submit an amendment to that effect, much less get it passed. Scalia is openly just making it up as he goes along now — and this new court is going to be just as bad as we predicted.

Is it just me or does the sight of Alito, Scalia, Roberts and Thomas doing what they consider to be god’s work, remind you of something?

Via kevin drum

Calling All New Yorkers

by digby

Check it out:

The Writer’s Voice Visiting Author Series Presents:

Glenn Greenwald “How Would a Patriot Act?”

Saturday, June 17, 2006

8:00 PM

Reading/Discussion/Q & A

West Side YMCA– The George Washington Lounge

5 West 63rd Street (between Central Park West & Broadway)

~Admission Free and Open to the Public~

We are pleased to continue our partnership with 67Wine, who in part provide beverages for our readings, in order to make your experience here even more pleasurable. Please visit their web site.

Copies of “How Would A Patriot Act” will be available for sale from our good friends at BookCourt, from downtown Brooklyn.

Go drink wine with Glenn and buy the book if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed.

.

Creative Scapegoating

by digby

Wow. It’s rare to see conventional wisdom being created right before your eyes, but this Chuck Todd piece is a masterpiece. Cokie just got her cocktail party chatter in nice bullet pointed talking points:

“From 30,000 feet, all of the elements for a big Democratic triumph seem to be in place, but zooming in closer on the nation’s landscape reveals a Democratic Party that just isn’t sure enough of itself to lead.

Consider:

• Ned Lamont’s Democratic primary challenge to Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. (You’ve heard of “rose-colored” glasses; well, some in the party view everything through “war-colored” glasses.)

• Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha’s (D) incredibly premature bid for House “majority” leader against longtime party stalwart, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. That introduced a level of cockiness the party didn’t need, particularly after last week’s less-than-stellar performance. Moreover, challenges like this only serve to divide the party. At least Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is showing signs of knowing when a bad idea has been launched by squelching the Murtha campaign.

• The rigorous “party credential” test Reagan Secretary of the Navy James Webb (D) was forced to undergo in Virginia. Republicans throw parades and clear primary fields for Democratic Party interlopers; former Reagan Navy secretaries-turned-Democratic Senate aspirants don’t grow on trees.

• The tepid response Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is receiving among liberal bloggers. Love her or hate her, it’s surprising that liberal activists seem to be turning their back on someone who has carried an enormous amount of water for the party.

• The throwback ticket of statewide nominees California Democrats picked last week. There’s nothing like stunting the growth of the party in the biggest state of the union by nominating throwbacks. The biggest thing the party has to fear is a victory of the Democratic ticket.

• Pelosi’s difficulty in purging her caucus of Rep. William “Freezer Cash” Jefferson, D-La. When are some in the party going to realize that not everything is about race?

Not one of these intraparty disputes is cause for alarm, but collectively, they paint a picture of a party that’s not yet ready to lead.”

I particularly like the phrase “throwback ticket” to describe progressives. And the biggest thing the party has to fear is victory. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

“The Democrats are not ready to lead.” I think we all know why, don’t we? The “war colored glasses” crowd is a terrible influence, don’t you know. We’re so out of control we are supporting a challenger in a Senate primary! Call out the guard!

The DC press corpse has been terribly distressed having to report so negatively about Republicans all the time. After all these years of being mau-maued by the right about being liberal I suspect the current political situation feels like their fur is being rubbed the wrong way. This Chuck Todd narrative gives them a much more comfortable way to report this.

And the best part is that if we win, they can use this narrative to describe us as immature and unready to govern right up through 2008, at which point they can deliver their favorite tough talker, John McCain, as the grown-up Daddy who will save us all.

You see, this “immature” label goes back a long, long way — all the way to the 60’s. It’s the standard baby boomer narrative that gets more absurd by the day as huge numbers of us greying lefties get closer to the grave. But I suspect it won’t die until we do, and maybe not even then. Liberals do tend to be idealists, which jaded insiders always find distasteful (unless it’s Junior Codpiece blathering on incoherently about the “Almighty’s gift of freedom” in which case they applaud wildly.)

Coverage of the Clinton administration from day one was all about the “undisciplined” atmosphere. Indeed, you’ll recall that the very last story of the administration was the RNC manufactured lies about the rampaging Clintonites trashing Air Force One. It was so silly it was hard to believe the press would go for it, but they did. Democrats, you see, are perpetual teen-agers. Cokie and her friends will tell you all about it, even as they gleefully rummage through underwear drawers and babble about haircuts and earthtones with all the gravitas of a seventh grade slumber party.

As much as Todd’s piece is pure CW drivel, he does make one point I think may be important. He notes:

…some realism has finally entered the equation when it comes to 2006, mostly based on one result — the Calif.-50 special election.

The race told us two things:

* There’s no extra excitement in the Democratic base, as there was no increase in the Democratic vote in Calif.-50. (The same was true of the entire state.)

* Immigration is an issue powerful enough to rally the Republican base.

These lessons run counter to the conventional wisdom from just two weeks ago that presumed Democrats were more fired up about the 2006 elections than Republicans, who supposedly were having their own problems firing up their base.

I don’t know if that race actually proves that, but I think the general observation may be correct. I have to agree that Democrats have yet to fire up the base enough. And the reason is that although many voters are unhappy with Bush they can’t see how things will be any different with Democrats in charge of the congress.

The Democracy Corps memo of a week or so ago said this:

Democrats have a strong and consistent lead in both the “real” Congressional vote and
Senate races. In our latest survey, Democrats enjoy an 8-point advantage in the “real” vote for Congress and have led by an average of 9 points over the past three months. In the race for Senate, the Democrats hold an 11-point edge in the “real” Senate vote over the past three months and even more impressively, lead by 10 points in races with vulnerable Republican incumbents. These advantages are impressive, but they are not big enough for Democrats to recapture the House or Senate.

The Democrat’s current advantage in the “real” vote for Congress is still a couple points short of the swing needed to match 1994 and what the data says is possible for the party to achieve. On virtually every test of message and policy direction in this survey, the Democratic advantage is twice that of the current vote margin. The voters want to give the Democrats a bigger margin than they are currently achieving. If the challenger campaigns are effective, they can catch this wave.

If the Democrats and challengers fail to show voters something more, this disillusionment could show itself in fragmentation to smaller parties and more likely, a stay-at-home protest. The current measures of potential Democratic turnout and enthusiasm are not impressive. And while it is likely that a low turnout election will hurt Republicans more than Democrats, a stay-away protest vote could also cut into the margin Democrats might have achieved.

Democrats can ignore this and fret about the immature and distasteful grassroots — or they can start giving their base a reason to vote for them. Mid-terms are about turn-out. Until rank and file Dems see that their party won’t just excuse, enable and endorse GOP policies they have no reason to get off the couch.

Let’s be clear about this: if we lose this fall, it will not be because the “war colored glasses” crowd was immature and failed to behave properly at the debutante ball. It will be because the Democratic establishment blew off its own voters in order to please David Broder and the stale DC punditocrisy — the same thing they have been doing for more than a decade and losing.

Don’t look at us. We’re trying to get Democratic voters charged up about being Democrats again. Pissing and moaning because Joe Lieberman is facing a primary challenge is having the opposite effect. If we lose, it will be because the party establishment once more showed contempt for Democratic voters — a fatal error the Republicans never ever make.

.

Memo To Democrats

by tristero

Issue #1 is Bush. Issue #2 is everything else. Until Bush no longer has a Republican majority in the House and the Senate to rubber stamp nearly everything he wants, your opinions and ideas mean squat. No. Less than squat.

Make reining in Bush *the* issue. Republicans in Congress will do whatever Bush wants, but the country is fed up with what Bush wants. They’ve seen how much damage he causes. Only Democratic majorities in Congress can prevent him from wreaking even worse havoc on the country. Bush is the issue. And hoo boy! has Bush made the your job incredibly easy:

Remember: Bush really is incompetent. And the American public sees it now.

Remember: Bush really has governed above the law. And the the American public understands that now.

Remember: Bush has bogged this nation down in an insane war. And the American public understands that now.

Remember: Bush does not have a genuine plan to deal with Iraq, nor is he capable of creating and implementing one. People are dying because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. And the American public understands that now.

Remember: Bush’s supreme callousness and negligence led to the hiring of the incompetents in charge of FEMA during Katrina. And the American public knows it.

Remember: This is one helluva unpopular president. The American public has very good reasons for disliking him and his policies so intensely. They are all but begging you to stand up and refuse to go along with his incompetent, extremist, and unlawful behavior.

Focus on Bush. Everything else is detail.

Love,

tristero

V I Day At Last

by digby

This is just awesome. The US found some al-Zarqawi documents that prove that we are smokin ’em outa their caves and that we’ve gottem on the run! And Bush was right all along! Yeaaaah!

A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United States and Iran was among a “huge treasure” of documents found in the hideout of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday. The document, purporting to reflect al-Qaida policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, also appear to show that the insurgency in Iraq was weakening.

The al-Qaida in Iraq document was translated and released by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie. There was no way to independently confirm the authenticity of the information attributed to al-Qaida.

Now, “some” might say since the Bush administration has been proved to be planting propaganda in both the Iraqi and US press, since we’ve “found” many spurious documents in Iraq before, and since they are lying scumbags about virtually everything including whether the sun came up this morning — that we should be skeptical of such things. I am not one of those people. Clearly, the war is won and we can bring the troops home.

I think it’s really lucky, though, that al-Zarqawi was keeping such meticulous notes and blueprints. Why do you suppose he was doing that? Was he required to send regular reports back to headquarters? A potential book deal perhaps? Maybe he was a blogger.

Anyway, note to revolutionaries, terrorists and insurgents everywhere: my mother told me many years ago, “never put on paper what the world can’t see.” You might want to think about that. Coz’ look what your sloppiness has done. Now the infidel knows all your plans and that you know they are winning. Gawd, how embarrassing! Moral is going to be shit after this.

While the coalition was continuing to suffer human losses, “time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance,” the document said.

The document said the insurgency was being hurt by, among other things, the U.S. military’s program to train Iraqi security forces, by massive arrests and seizures of weapons, by tightening the militants’ financial outlets, and by creating divisions within its ranks.

[…]

According to the summary, insurgents were being weakened by operations against them and by their failure to attract recruits. To give new impetus to the insurgency, they would have to change tactics, it added.

Can you believe it? Why George W. Bush was right on every single thing! Boy, is my face red.

There’s a lot more at the link — example after example of how the insugency is being beaten down by the superior US battle plan. There can be no more doubts. We’ve turned the corner. When the evil mastermind himself writes on his blog that he is helpless in the face of your superior superiority and that he’s just about to give up because you are so much stronger and better and gooder — well, there can be no further doubt that the US has kicked some terrorist ass but good. It’s morning in America folks. The war is won!

Now lets go get us some illegal aliens!

Hat tip to GL.

.

A New Ed Helms Movie!

by tristero

Cool! It looks like Ed Helms, one of the funniest guys on tv, is set to play a bumbling White House counselor with a fear of flying in a 21st century remake of the Abrahams/Zucker masterpiece, Airplane! Man I can’t wait!

But who’s that guy next to Ed? It looks like it could be Moe Howard’s grandson. Better check the cast list…

Ooops. My bad.

Democratic Terrorists

by digby

This new Lieberman poll is an earthquake. Ned Lamont could win this thing. The word is that Lieberman is actually quite serious about leaving the party, but that’s not actually correct. Connecticut Democrats seem to be leaving him.

Naturally, this is just terrible. Who has ever heard of supporting a candidate in a primary to challenge an incumbent with whom you are unhappy? Why, it’s political terrorism, I tell ya!

“I think to be terrorized through the summer by an extremely small group of the Democratic Party, much less the voting population, is total insanity for a person who is a three-term senator,” Droney said.

Looks like that extremely small group of terrorists is on its way to becoming a majority of Democrats. How very untidy. Usurping a three term Senator simply isn’t done, you see. He’s been ordained by God.

Josh Marshall put it well in this post about the campaign from last week:

But what was Lieberman’s excuse [for refusing to back protecting social security]?

We went back and forth with him. I’d talk to his staffers and folks around him and work and work and work to get a straight answer, but just had the hardest time. It was always this statement or that that seemed to support Social Security but really left the door open to some compromise on phase out when you looked at it closely. On and on and on.

And what was the point of that? Certainly it wasn’t political, at least not in the narrow sense. Lieberman didn’t have anything to worry about in Connecticut. If it was ideological, what’s that about? It’s a core Democratic issue. Not a shibboleth or a sacred cow. But a core reason why most Democrats are Democrats.

In the end it just seemed like a desire to be in the mix for some illusory compromise or grand bargain, an ingrained disinclination to take a stand, even in a case when it really mattered. There’s some whiff of indifference to the great challenges of the age, even amidst the atmospherics of concern.

This of course doesn’t even get into everything on Iraq or the pussy-footing over running the Pentagon for President Bush.

I think the most generous read on Lieberman is that he’s just out of step with the parliamentary turn of recent American politics which I myself, Mark Schmitt and many others have discussed. But I think that’s too generous. The whining in Washington that it’s somehow an affront that Lieberman’s hold on his senate is being threatened is entirely misplaced, a good example of what’s wrong with DC’s permanent class.

Exactly. The establishment would obviously like to do away with primaries. They would prefer to simply tell the plebes for whom to vote and just take their money. But, that’s not the way it’s going to work anymore. It’s not just that politics have taken a parliamentary turn, which is quite true. It goes to the heart of why so many Americans don’t trust Democrats to lead: the spineless factor. It’s why the Democratic terrorists are going to take the radical step of trying to elect someone who doesn’t publicly kiss George W. Bush on the lips every chance he gets.

You don’t have to look any further than Joe Lieberman to understand why the entire world thinks Democrats are a bunch of chickenshit losers. We’re tired of being associated with someone who can’t even stand a fair fight in the Connecticut Democratic party without whining like snivelling schoolkid and threatening to take his ball and go home. Why should anyone trust such a gutless tool with the reins of government? I know I don’t. The party is on notice that this just won’t be tolerated anymore by leading Blue State Democrats.

Here’s the plan. First, the Democratic terrorists are going to kick Lieberman’s ass. After that, they are going to kick the Republican party’s ass. And finally they will kick bin Laden’s ass. We didn’t create this hard core political environment, the Republicans did, with the help of self-serving Dems like Lieberman. Now somebody has to clean up all these messes. The crazed Democratic terrorists who are willing to cast aside all morality by ruthlessly supporting a primary challenger (who is not a travelling Deadhead, but rather a middle of the road self made millionaire) seem to be the only ones who are willing to do it.

Update:

This is outrageous:

Schumer said that the DSCC “fully supports” Sen. Joe Lieberman in his primary bid, and he refused to rule out continuing that support if Lieberman were to run as an independent.

There were degrees of independence, Schumer said. “You can run as an independent, you can run as an independent Democrat who pledges to vote for Harry Reid as Majority Leader.”

Uhm, no. You don’t get to leave the party to avoid losing in a Democratic primary and then expect Democratic party financial support to run against the Democratic candidate. That’s just nuts. And it’s so disrespectful to the Democratic voters of Connecticut I can’t honestly believe he has thought this through.

If they do this, it will cause a full on backlash against the Democratic Party by the rank and file and the party elders like Shumer have no one to blame but themselves. Frankly, this arrogant dictatorial attitude would be a little bit easier to take if the party hadn’t given away the fucking store for the last quarter century and gotten exactly nothing in return. The last time I checked these people haven’t won anything in a long, long time. Why we are supposed to keep putting our faith in their greater capacity to win is beyond me. Certainly, the unmitigated gall of these goddamned losers lording over the voters like this is going to kill this party. A little humility is called for here.

Call your senators’ offices.
Sign this petition for Ned Lamont.

Remember, this is the crowd that spent millions to come up with this stirring slogan: “Together, America can do better.”

Meanwhile, the Republicans say, “America is the best!”

You tell me which statement appeals more to the American people.

.